LIVING and LEARNING

Áras Mhairtín Uí Chadhain is situated in the Galway Gaeltacht in An Cheathrú Rua. That being so:

1. The student maximises his or her contact with the language and reinforces the formal classroom content in a relaxed manner.

2. All the teaching staff are native speakers and the centre is equipped with modern teaching aids.

3. An Cheathrú Rua, with beautiful scenery and unpolluted beaches, is an ideal location for relaxed learning.

4. Accommodation is provided in modern homes which ensures close proximity to the learning of a living language. Fees for these courses which span a wide range of ability levels and timescales are available on request from the Áras.

In the Rath Cairn Gaeltacht of Co. Na Midhe, Pádraig MacDonncha, Stiúrthóir of Comharchumann Rath Cairn had this to say of his plans for the Áras Uí Ghramhnaigh.

“Following on the success of 1994, Ráth Cairn Co-Operative Society, under the auspices of Áras Uí Ghramhnaigh, intends running language and culture holidays for adults again in 1995. These are holidays tailored for adults who are learning Irish. It is a holiday with a difference for those who have no Irish at all or for those who are learning, but who wish to expand their fluency and accuracy in the language.

“The holiday has as its foundation an intensive language course, liberally sprinkled with a wide range of different cultural activities. There will be demonstrations on sean nós singing and dancing together with storytelling and singing classes. There will also be historical and heritage tours throughout the course. All events are organised and presented in Irish except the beginners separate course, which will be bilingual. It would be hoped that any participants possessing musical skills would bring their musical instruments with them. This would, of course, add to the enjoyment and entertainment specially at night in Club Ráth Cairn.”

What about the view that to fully enjoy a holiday, people have to speak in their most familiar tongue.

“We have proven here in Ráth Cairn that not only can a holiday be enjoyable in Irish but that it is better in Irish. One Dubliner who was here in the summer of 1994 delightedly explained one night that not only did he dream in Irish whilst he was in Ráth Cairn, but that he had dreamt in Irish three nights in succession and that he was looking forward to going asleep that night to dream in Irish again. That has to be language learning and enjoyment at its best.”

PAR for the COURSE

Oideas Gael is an organisation which, based in Glencolumbkille, was set up to facilitate adults who want to learn Irish. “All courses” according to spokesman Liam Ó Cuinneagáin, “would have three or more levels. There are also bilingual cultural activity holidays – hill walking and other non-classroom pursuits, and in 1995 we have bookings from people from 20 different countries.”

Are these courses, I asked him, a costly pursuit? “Far from it, it seems, since the courses begin at £50 and go all the way up to £110, which gets you B&B and tuition for 1 week. Good value, says I, in anybody’s money, and the first full courses begin Easter weekend, so loígí ann.

ACE in the CEOL

Traditional Irish music is undergoing a ‘quiet revolution’.

I bhfad sular tháinig Teilifís na Gaeilge ar an sad, bhí Glór na nGael ag déanamh obair dian dicheallach ar son na Gaeilge ar fud na túr. I bhfoclaibh Nora Welby unlabhra Glór, “Tá athrú tagtha le cúpla bliain anuas; tá An Ghaeilge ar an agenda ag na ndaoine, go háirithe na daoine óga – tá siad an-tógtha leis. Thairis sin, freisin, tá forbairt do-chreidte déanta sa Turisceart. Ó tharla an Sos-Chogaidh is brea leis na Produstúnaigh bheith pairteach ann.”

I mbliana bhuaigh Ceantar Naithe i nDún Drama, BÁC an chéad duais i gcomórtás Glór na nGael, agus tháinig siad chuig an toradh sin mar gheall ar an méid comhoibriú a rinne siaid. Dar le Nóra, bhí siad cosúil le ‘meitheal’ ins na seanlaethanta. I lámha daoine mar sin, is rud beo beathaíoch í an Ghaeilge; ní rud a stadann nuair a dhúnann na scoilleanna.

The music of Ireland is as intrinsic to our culture and its development as is the existence of language, for it in its own way records the history of a people, more seamlessly than any book will ever do. In our search for expression we have been luckier than most, for we can lay claim to O’Riada Ennis and Clancy, people who loved, kept and nurtured the music for future generations. Those ‘future’ generations are with us now, and while on the one hand people like Micheál Ó Suilleabháin, Donal Lunny and Bill Whelan and others are gathering plaudits on a wider stage, there’s a quiet revolution going on in such unlikely places as UCC, where the annual Éigse Na Laoi has assumed a major importance in the canons of our native muse, drawing together elements not only of our own expression, but also of those countries we peopled or touched by emigration.

Mel Mercis, himself a musician of no mean stature, tells part of the story of UCC emergence as a centre of artistic excellence. “The framework was built up over 17 years by Micheál Ó Suilleabháin to the point where there are now teachers in the various instruments taking classes.”

These, I should add are people of the calibre of Nomos’ Liz Doherty, who is also an assistant lecturer to Mr. Mercier, Johnny McCarthy, and Hammy Hamilton to name a few. “There’s an academic degree with a very large element of practical stuff – each student plays at least two instruments and there are within the college incredibly vibrant trad, jazz and classical societies – all student-led. For that reason there’s no fear for the music.”

Nor does Mel believe that the language, in music circles, is in danger. “I do think that the language is at the beginning of coming into its own in a new way. Musicians are beginning to take back the language.”

They will, I suppose with the innovation that is their hallmark, begin to use it even more radically in the future. Mel and I talked without need of or recourse to notes across a range of other subjects, the body of which will, I hope, form the basis of an extensive interview later this year . . .